On Sunday, August 11, 2002, at 10:56 AM, Mark Baker wrote:
> Not me. It's extraordinarily vague, as Paul also noted.
>
OK, please tell me exactly how my definition is any more vague than
the earlier version. Here they are side by side:
OLD: Definition: A Web service is a software application identified by a
URI, whose interfaces and binding [sic] are capable of being
defined,
described and discovered by XML artifacts and supports direct
interactions with other software applications using XML based
messages via internet-based protocols
NEW: Definition: A Web service is a software application identified by a
URI, whose interfaces and bindings are defined in terms of XML
based
messages transported by internet protocols. This definition,
which is
described using XML artifacts, can be discovered by other software
applications, which may then interact with the web service in
a manner prescribed by its definition.
The only difference which might change the semantics (rather simply
making
the thing grammatical and unambiguous: for example, removing the
conflation
of descriptive and active "artifacts") is the deletion of the phrase
"direct interactions". I don't know what the original author(s) might
have meant by that term, but most of the possible interpretations
imply some rather unfortunate limitations on the scope of web services.
(For example, it might be read as disallowing proxy or broker patterns.)